Members of the Northeast Colorado Board of Health last week helped recognize several food service facilities across northeast Colorado for their commitment to food safety.

The Northeastern Colorado Excellence in Food Safety award was developed this past year as an incentive program aimed at recognizing facilities inspected by the Northeast Colorado Health Department that practice excellent food safety.

"Preventing foodborne illness is a challenge and takes a commitment from everyone involved," said Carmen Vandenbark, NCHD's director of environmental health. "This award is meant to recognize those that go above and beyond every day to ensure that their establishment is exceptional. We want to show our appreciation to the management and staff of these facilities for their commitment to proper food handling and preparation techniques."

According to Vandenbark the awards were presented to facilities in three different categories: full-service facilities, defined as a facility conducting food preparation, cooling, reheating, and hot and cold holding of potentially hazardous foods; limited-service facilities, defined as a facility conducting food preparation, limited cooling, reheating, and hot and cold holding of potentially hazardous foods; and non-profit/public service facilities, defined as a facility that operates as a public school, senior center, or other public entity.

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The criteria used to select those facilities that were exceptional included things such as maintaining current staff and manager food safety training, having no presumptive foodborne illness or violations involving food temperatures, cross contamination, or personal hygienic practices in the past 12 months, demonstrating that cleanliness and effective sanitization are an important practice in their daily operation, and showing a willingness to correct violations in a timely manner and cooperate with inspectors.

In Logan County Sterling Regional Med Center met the criteria in the full-service category, Burger King in the limited-service category, and Caliche School in the public service category. Other award winners in northeast Colorado included:

For more information about the food program contact NCHD at (970) 522-3741 or visit us online at nchd.org. To learn more about food service inspections and ratings of facilities click on the Restaurant Inspections link on the department website.

In other news the board:

Accepted the February financial reports.

Discussed the 2013 Board of Health meeting agenda, which is posted online at nchd.org;

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